Big City Christmas
by Elenhin
Summary: This is a story of the Duke boys at Christmas times, and their holiday adventures, caused by the fact that kids will sometimes take what you say literally, and Bo and Luke will always stick together, no matter what…
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is a Christmas story, and I am posting it because Halloween is coming up… I am doing it this way because it's tradition to post Christmas stories during Christmas season, and those of you who know me very well will not be surprised by this but just shrug and wonder why I ain't still locked up in the hotel with the soft padded room and hug-yourself-jackets, the answer is, they were booked full….. ;)

Anyway, this is meant to be a cute little story about how the Duke kids gets to celebrating Christmas and I hope y'all will enjoy it.

**Warning**: _The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen. _

Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix…. There is a few people in this story I have to claim responsibility for, and should you want them, I never really am impossible.

* * *

**Big City Christmas **

_**Chapter 1: Bad Boy**_

"Lucas K Duke," Jesse roared as he watched the small dark haired boy in the kitchen. "What in tarnation do ya think yer doing?"

Luke stood in the perfect centre of a mess. There were broken pieces of a cookie jar, flower pot and pitcher by his feet. Cookies, milk and dirt from the flower pot combined with a sad uprooted little plant covered the floor. The young boy himself was a complete mess to behold. The trousers and shirt had both been new but were now stained by who knew what, and had small holes and tears in them. His lower lip was protruding in a defiant expression while the baby blue eyes were filled with fear and anger.

"Well, what have ya got to say fer yerself?" Jesse demanded as he grabbed his arm to keep him from running off. Not always, but sometimes Luke bolted if he felt cornered in, especially if he knew he had done something wrong, and by the looks of the kitchen, he had done something very wrong.

"Nothing," Luke told him with that stubborn tone of voice Jesse knew so well by now.

"Ya call this whole mess nothing?" Jesse asked baffled.

"I ain't got nothing to say about it," Luke clarified.

"Well I do," Jesse told him sternly. "Ya clean this here mess up Luke, an' I don't wanna see no' speck of anything left. Then when yer done, I wanna see ya in the woodshed, is that understood."

"Yeah," Luke told him, glaring at the mess he was standing in.

"Good, now ya know where everything is, an' how to use it, an' mind yerself so ya don't cut yerself on that glass," Jesse cautioned him before letting go and heading outside to look for a good switch. There was no point in demanding he tell what it had been about, if Luke wasn't telling, then you could switch his bottom to the bone and he still wouldn't tell. That was just Luke, and Jesse had learned that sometimes Luke just refused to tell you what was going on in his young but busy mind.

It saddened him to think that the boy would be in any kind of pain over Christmas, but he couldn't let him go unpunished no matter the day of the year. It was however the reason why he was getting a switch rather than using his belt, and why he was cutting it rather then sending Luke after it.

Both boys feared the belt more than the switch and hated to be sent out to get the switch themselves. It would have Bo in such frightful fits of crying that Jesse had decided it wasn't possible and it had tears run down Luke's face at times. So Jesse was simply doing what he could to let him off easy at Christmas without letting him go unpunished.

Luke cleaned up the kitchen with painstaking carefulness not to miss anything. The glass shards, flowerpot and all the cookies went into the trash while the plant went on the dung heap behind the barn. He mopped up the mess on the floor and grabbed a rag to wash away all traces. Then he crawled over the floor on all fours to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

Only then he shuffled off to the woodshed with shoulders slumping to meet his punishment.

Jesse went easier on him than he thought maybe he should, but there were still tears in the boy's eyes when he straightened up and fought not to cry.

"Now Luke, ya know ya did wrong, so ya knew why I had to do that," Jesse told him as he watched the boy button up his small jeans.

"Yeah," Luke didn't manage the 'sir' as he sniffed.

"I didn't want to do that son," Jesse went on. "It hurt me a lot more than you being forced to do it, so it's forgiven now, an' if ya behave, we ain't gonna say anything else about it, understood?"

"Yeah," Luke sniffed again and dipped his head so that the dark curls hid his eyes.

"Go on inside," Jesse urged him. There was no need to inspect the kitchen. He knew that Luke would have done a good job. If there was anything remaining, then the boy had honestly missed it, and Jesse knew that. He didn't need to watch the punishment to see that it got done, Luke would never be sloppy about it on purpose and it felt good to let the boy know he trusted him there.

However it wasn't fully the end of it Jesse and Martha soon discovered. The sore bottom made Luke very irritably and not very friendly at all. He kept away from his two cousins until it was time for supper and then he stood by the stove to eat while the others sat down, occasionally rubbing at his behind with a hand while sniffing a bit.

"Look at Luke," Daisy giggled as Luke dropped a morsel of food on the floor and bent awkwardly to pick it up.

Martha didn't have the time to scold her before Luke kicked her chair. "Shut up!" he cried angrily.

"Luke," Jesse said firmly. "Apologize to yer cousin right now."

"No!" Luke cried turning to face him.

"Lucas, don't you know that Santa won't come if there's a naughty boy in the house?" Martha stood up and went over to him. "Now, apologize to yer cousin."

"Sorry Daisy," Luke mumbled.

"That's good, and Daisy, I think you should apologize to, it ain't nice to laugh at someone," Martha reminded her charge.

"Sorry Luke," Daisy muttered grudgingly as she was still mad at Luke for acting the way he did.

Bo had been so startled he spilt his milk, but he was so scared he didn't really notice the milk that was dripping into his lap as the events registered into his young boy. He started crying just from watching it. Jesse comforted him while Martha wiped up the milk and everyone went back to eating, but Bo wasn't able to fully stop crying, and after the meal he and Daisy went to talk with their older cousin.

"Ya heard Aunt Martha," Bo whimpered. "We ain't gonna get any presents."

"An' it's gonna be all yer fault," Daisy went on. "Ya was the one was naughty, an' now Santa ain't gonna come to us at all."

"It ain't my fault at all, so ya shut up," Luke defended himself. He had never considered the possibility, but whatever his aunt and uncle said had to be true, and now he too was scared.

"I want Santa to come," Bo cried with big wet tears rolling down his face and dripping to the floor. "Please Luke, do something so he will still come, please."

"It is all yer fault an' ya know it, so ya had better do something," Daisy demanded.

"Okay, okay," Luke glared at her. "I'll make sure Santa comes here."

Daisy walked away and Bo threw tiny arms around his older cousin, whatever Luke said he would do, he did. Bo didn't trust anyone as much as he trusted Luke, well, beside his aunt and uncle. After them, no one could be better than Luke.

Luke pushed him away and went into their bedroom to think, aunt Martha was right, if there was a naughty boy in the house Santa didn't come, and he had been naughty, very naughty. Martha had spent the last days with Daisy and didn't have any time for him at all. He had gotten that muck on his clothes, and the holes in them, and she still didn't pay him any mind. Jesse was busy to, and Bo was playing with his cars, so he had been a really bad boy, and it had been a really stupid thing to do. Now he had promised to make sure Bo and Daisy could still get their presents, so he did the only thing he could think of that would make sure of it. He packed down a few apples from the pantry into a bag, and a spare change of clothes. Then he wrote a note to Santa saying he had gone away so that there would only be good little boys and girls in the house and put the note on the fireplace. After that, he let aunt Martha tuck him into bed, but as soon as the house was quiet he dressed, grabbed his bag and slipped outside.

Walking down the road he never noticed that there was a small shadow following him. Luke knew a lot of things about Hazzard, he knew that every night there was a truck going down the way, and it always stopped by the creek a little to look out over the water, so he waited there and when it came and stopped he climbed up and hid under the tarp in the back. It's was a very low flat bed truck, and since the driver had to go up in the back often there was even a footstep and a hand hold on the side. Luke and Bo had both climbed up into it many times in Hazzard when it was stopped there and they went over to talk with him or play. He never minded them getting up in the back and would talk with them, so climbing up was real easy. Once he was hidden away out of sight a smaller shadow climbed up as well and hid under another corner of the tarp.

The truck stopped in the morning by a diner in Atlanta, and the truck coming to a halt woke Luke up where he had been sleeping. Crawling over to jump off the truck he stepped on something that squirmed and cried out. Pulling back the tarp Luke cried out in surprise.

"Bo!" What are ya doing here?" he demanded.

"I'm doing what yer doing," Bo told him.

"I went so that Santa would still come to you an' Daisy," Luke pointed out. "Ya can't be here Bo, ya gotta go home."

"Where am I Luke?" Bo asked fearfully as he looked around and couldn't spot anything that looked familiar.

"Atlanta I reckon," Luke told him as they got down on the street. "But ya can't be here Bo."

"Yer here," Bo stuck his thumb in his mouth.

"Don't ya get it Bo, I had to go or Santa wasn't gonna come," Luke told him angrily.

"That mean Santa ain't coming to me?" Bo asked and his eyes filled to the brim with tears. Luke took a deep breath to calm himself down. Like it or not, Bo was now his responsibility and he had to make sure he was going to be okay.

"Don't worry Bo," he told him, gathering him up in a hug. "When Uncle Jesse took me first he told me that Santa knew where ever kid is, so I didn't have to worry about him not finding me cause I lived with them. I bet he knows yer here now, an' we ain't at home, so he'll come to ya even if I's naughty."

"Really?" Bo asked hopefully.

"I'm sure of it Bo," Luke took an apple from his bag and handed to him. Bo had to go back home he thought as they walked down the street with him holding Bo's hand, he just didn't know how to make that happen.

"Luke?" Bo mumbled around a mouthful of apple. "Why'd ya have to be bad? I's wanted to be home with ya fer Christmas."

When Luke asked his uncle one of them serious questions he would always either put him on his lap or kneel down in front of him. He said that it was because it was easier to have a serious talk if you were both on the same eye level, and Luke guessed he was right. Sometimes it made him feel really really small when his uncle was standing there so much bigger than he was, and he guessed Bo felt the same way at times. So sitting down on the step to a door Luke pulled Bo down to sit beside him.

"Bo, I didn't mean to be so bad that Santa wasn't gonna come," he explained to him. "I just felt all kinda funny, and I had to do something. It wasn't till I done it I realized it was a real bad thing to do an' I should've done something else."

"But why did ya then?" Bo asked, trying to understand, but it was hard to understand what Luke was saying at times. His uncle always told him not to worry, he said that Bo was only just four years old, so it was hard to understand a lot of things when you were four. He also said that even though he was lots older than four, uncle Jesse didn't always understand Luke either….

Luke thought about it, trying to find a way to explain it to Bo's satisfaction.

"Sometimes, ya know ya wanna do something, but ya don't know how to do it, so ya just have to do something an' hope it's the right way," he stated slowly.

"Why didn't ya ask Uncle Jesse?" Bo asked, the apple forgotten now that he was talking to Luke. "Uncle Jesse always knows everything."

"I tried, but he just said he didn't have the time," Luke told him, still feeling a bit of the rejection that had stung so bad when he said that. "I think I was kinda afraid they wasn't ever gonna have time for me anymore Bo. I felt like they was so busy with ya an' Daisy an' the farm that there wasn't really no place for me anymore."

Bo knew what that meant, it meant that Luke thought no one wanted him anymore. Once when Luke was mad Bo had asked aunt Martha why, and she had explained it to him very carefully.

"Don't go Luke!" Bo wailed and dropped the apple on the ground while throwing both his small arms around Luke's neck and holding on as if his life depended on it. He was wailing and crying while Luke tried to comfort him and calm him down, promising Bo that he wasn't going to go away, he'd go back home after Christmas when he didn't have to worry about Santa not coming no more.

**TBC**

_Please review, the Cricket is hungry……_


	2. In The Big City

Author's Note: This is a Christmas story, and I am posting it because Halloween is coming up… I am doing it this way because it's tradition to post Christmas stories during Christmas season, and those of you who know me very well will not be surprised by this but just shrug and wonder why I ain't still locked up in the hotel with the soft padded room and hug-yourself-jackets, the answer is, they were booked full….. ;)

Anyway, this is meant to be a cute little story about how the Duke kids gets to celebrating Christmas and I hope y'all will enjoy it.

**Warning**: _The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen. _

Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix…. There is a few people in this story I have to claim responsibility for, and should you want them, I never really am impossible.

* * *

**Big City Christmas**

_**Chapter 2: In The Big City**_

Bo had stopped crying but he was still a bit sad, and he was started to miss the rest of his family, even though Luke had done his best to comfort him. It was hard, because Luke really didn't know what to do. In Hazzard it was easy, if he was in town and something happened there was plenty of places he could go. Like when he and Bo was playing and Bo tripped and cut his hand. It didn't bleed a lot, but Bo was crying so Luke let him ride piggy back over to the post office where Miss Tisdale helped them clean it off and gave them each a cookie. They didn't even have to take a number like Uncle Jesse always had to do. Luke had been trying to, but he couldn't reach them and Bo was crying, so she just took them into the office behind the front room and made it all okay.

Almost everyone in Hazzard was like that, you could knock on any door if you were thirsty and needed a drink of water or something, or like when he missed the school buss and had to call uncle Jesse. The big city wasn't like that, he wasn't sure exactly what it was like, but he knew it wasn't like Hazzard.

"Luke, my feet hurt," Bo complained as he trudged beside him. Luke was mostly walking around, hoping to find some way to make sure Bo got back home.

"We can rest for a bit if ya want to," he offered Bo.

"I wanna go home to Uncle Jesse, can't we go home, please Luke?" Bo begged.

"I can't go home till Santa has come," Luke reminded him. "But don't worry Bo, I'm gonna make sure that ya don't miss him."

"Promise?" Bo asked again.

"I promise," Luke nodded and gave Bo a hug, which Bo rewarded with kissing his cheek.

"Luke, my feet still hurt," Bo whined softly.

"Alright, ya can ride piggy back," Luke knelt down so that Bo could climb up on his back.

"I'm hungry," Bo whispered into his ear as he leaned his head on Luke's shoulder.

"I got one more apple," Luke told him. He had given Bo most of them, dead set on taking care of his little cousin.

Bo shook his head. "Tired of apples Luke, can I have something to eat, please?"

Luke didn't have to look into his blue eyes to feel the power of them. He felt so sorry for having dragged Bo into this, and he was starting to get awful scared maybe it hadn't been such a good idea either. It had seemed like a perfect plan, but only for him, not for little Bo in a big city. What if Santa got so mad at him for dragging Bo into it he never came back to the farm?

"Okay Bo, I just need to find something good, can ya wait till I do that?" He had brought his entire savings with him, which wasn't much at all, but it would be enough for Bo to eat till he could find a way to get him back home. He walked into a big store and smiled as he found a hamburger restaurant, buying Bo a hamburger and fries. It was so much that Bo wasn't able to eat all of it so Luke got a little for himself as well.

"Love ya Luke," Bo kissed his cheek again and smeared ketchup on him but Luke didn't mind. He was just so happy he had Bo for his cousin that he hugged him.

"Bo, can ya come with me, an' keep yer eyes closed?" he asked.

"Why?" Bo asked while he nodded.

"I can't tell ya, but it's real important," Luke told him.

"Kay, but only if I get to ride piggy back," Bo told him and Luke knelt down again for him. The reason was that Luke had spotted a toy store and walking inside it he bought a little red match box car and a small blue rubbed ball, that way, if something went wrong, Bo would get that much for Christmas, and he would think Santa had been there and left it for him.

For the moment though he left it in his pocket and sat down with Bo on a park bench to do some thinking.

"Luke, are we gonna be here long?" Bo asked him trying not to cry. They had been away awfully long and he was getting mighty homesick. When he and Luke slept over at Cooter's or Enos' house he sometimes got homesick and wanted to go home in the night, but it had never been this bad. Cooter's mama was great when you was sad, she was so nice to you, and she would take Bo and tell him a story until he fell asleep. Enos' mother had taken him home in the middle of the night once when he started to feel sad because he missed his aunt and uncle, now it felt a hundred times worse.

"I don't know Bo," Luke told him. He was getting desperate for a way to get back home, and he was doing his best to think about something.

"I wanna go home Luke," Bo cried silently and Luke wished he knew how to call the farm in Hazzard, but he didn't. In Hazzard you just asked the nice lady at the phone company to connect you to wherever you wanted to call, but he knew it didn't work that way in the city, they wouldn't know where the Duke farm was.

He was trying to comfort Bo when he realized something, it was getting pretty late now but he had seen a sheriff station earlier, and uncle Jesse had told him that a sheriff was the same everywhere. They were supposed to help you with all kinds of things. Thinking about it, Joey in school said he got lost once in the big city an' the sheriff helped him find his mama and papa again.

Lifting Bo up to carry him Luke walked back along the streets until he found the right house and knocked on the door. Bo was still crying in his arms and didn't really notice where they were, and Luke got worried when no one answered the door. Trying to be as brave as he could he pushed at it, and walked in when it opened. Looking around he spotted a man sitting behind a desk and walked over there.

"Hey there, what's wrong children?" the man asked as he heard Bo's quiet crying and looked up.

"Sorry to bother ya sir, but I kind need some help finding a way to get my cousin back home," Luke told him.

"I wanna go home," Bo whimpered. "I miss Uncle Jesse an' Aunt Martha Luke."

"Are you lost?" the man asked as he came around the desk and kneeling down in front of them.

"Not really, I guess," Luke frowned. "We's in Atlanta ain't we?"

The man nodded. "I'm Deputy Johnson, can you tell me your names?"

"I'm Luke Duke, an' this is my cousin Bo. I didn't mean to bother ya or nothing, but Bo ain't supposed to be here, so I need to find a way to get him back home," Luke explained. The nice deputy kept asking questions, and Luke answered the best he could. Bo had stopped crying, but it was mostly because he was distracted by the Sheriff badge that was now pinned on his shirt while he wore a too big hat on his head. Deputy Johnson had done that so he wouldn't cry anymore, and seated where he was in Luke's lap, Bo was okay for the moment.

Luke felt like crying when the deputy told him that he had gotten a report about two missing children in Hazzard that everyone was looking for. Finding out that he knew who they were because everyone was searching for them Luke started crying. He was sure that meant he had just been more bad than he had ever been before in his life, and when he got back his uncle would punish him so bad. He couldn't help it, he was scared and this was one time when his uncle wouldn't comfort him.

He tried to explain why he had done it, and that Bo wasn't supposed to be with him. He tried to explain that he had just wanted to make sure that his cousins would get their presents, and that he didn't want to be so bad, but he wasn't sure if the nice deputy understood it. Even if he knew that they never really did lock up children in jail, if people thought that he had run away, and taken Bo with him, maybe they would make an exception, and Luke didn't want to go to jail. If he did, he'd never get to see Bo, or uncle Jesse, aunt Martha or even Daisy, Cooter and Enos ever again. So he just couldn't help crying.

The sheriff deputy was still nice, Bo had fallen asleep so he put him down on a couch they had there and then he sat down trying to talk to Luke and offered him something to eat. Luke didn't want anything though, but it was a long time until his aunt and uncle could get there. Luke knew they were on the way because Deputy Johnson said that they were.

After a while Bo woke up and he wanted something to eat, so Luke tried to explain he still had a little money left and wondered if there was anything he could buy for his cousin. Deputy Johnson got food for them but he refused to take Luke's money for it. He said that they always fed prisoners and little lost boys. Luke had to smile a bit, because Bo declared that he wasn't lost at all, he was with Luke and Luke knew where they were. He had the badge and the hat on him again and begged Deputy Johnson to let him go into a cell for a little while, he even was brave enough to let him close the door.

Luke would have loved to do that to but he was too scared, so he didn't. He found a corner to sit in and tried to be invisible. Bo found him though, and came over with some papers and a few pencils, declaring that he wanted to make deputy Johnson a Christmas present and Luke had to help him.

Since it took his mind of his fear for his uncle Luke helped him and together they made a few drawings, a really good air plane and Luke knew how to fold both a bird and frogs out of paper, the frogs could even jump. When they were done, they folded one paper around it all and gave it to the deputy, telling him he couldn't open it before Christmas.

Bo had just settled down on the couch as deputy Johnson tried to make him take a nap when the door opened. Luke saw his uncle, and he saw Bo run to him so he ran himself. Only he ran in the other direction and darted in behind the desk.

"Luke!" Hearing his aunt's voice he crawled in further under the desk.

Jesse gave his wife a small smile and handed her the little boy he was holding. Bo was already telling all what they had been doing, very excited by the adventure.

Bending down by the desk Jesse reached in and pulled Luke out where it was easier to talk to him. The boy didn't resist him, but Jesse could see in his eyes he was scared. "Now what has this all been about Luke?"

"Bo wasn't s'posed to go with me," Luke defended himself. "I was supposed to go, not Bo, I didn't mean to take him with me, I tried to get him back home."

"An' that ya did a good job off," Jesse nodded. "Luke, we've been scared to death when we couldn't find ya, thinking what could've happened to ya. I ain't really mad right now, but I've been very worried for ya both so bad."

"Are ya gonna get mad at me when ya stop being worried?" Luke asked carefully.

"I don't think I will this time," Jesse told him thoughtfully. "Luke, is this cause I had to punish ya before?"

"Kinda," Luke admitted. "Aunt Martha said that Santa wouldn't go to a house if there was a kid there was naughty."

"So ya ran away because ya was thinking Santa wasn't gonna bring ya anything?" Jesse asked wishing the boy had just asked him about that.

"No," I did it so that Santa was gonna come for Bo an' Daisy," Luke explained. "Ya said that if there was a naughty child in the house Santa wouldn't come at all, an' I couldn't let them miss Santa cause of me could I?"

"So let me see if I get this right," Jesse said patiently. "Ya thought that since ya misbehaved, Santa wouldn't come to Bo an' Daisy either, so ya ran away from home, and Bo followed ya."

Luke nodded slowly.

"Luke, why did ya run away, didn't ya understand that we were gonna worry?"

Luke shook his head.

"Luke, how could ya not understand that?" Jesse asked him.

"Why'd ya worry about me if I's bad?" Luke asked in return.

"Hush Jesse, this ain't the time for that," Martha had a half sleeping Bo in her arms but knelt down to hug Luke just the same. "Luke, there is something very important ya have to understand right now," she told him slowly.

"Your uncle and I love you very much, and we have been very worried about you. We are not bad because this is really our fault more than it is yours, so I don't want you being scared of being punished, okay?"

Luke nodded slowly.

"Come on then," Martha smiled. "Lets go on home."

"But what if Santa don't come if I do?" Luke asked her worriedly. Apparently this was a time when she understood better than their uncle did.

"We're gonna talk about that tomorrow," Martha told him. "But I promise you Luke, ya don't have to worry about Santa not coming cause we go home now, but we need to get you and Bo both home to bed."

"Kay," Luke agreed and told the nice deputy goodbye, giving him a small hug and thanking him for all that he had done for the two cousins. Especially thanking him for being so nice to Bo, then he followed his aunt and uncle out to the car.

His aunt settled the two boys in the backseat of their car and Luke wrapped an arm around Bo's small body to keep him safe as he slept in the car.

"Close those pretty blue eyes now Luke," Aunt Martha told him as she turned around in her seat and reached out to brush her hand over his cheek. "Little boys need plenty of sleep, and it's very late for ya to still be awake."

"Aunt Martha?" Luke started quietly.

"Yes Luke," she urged him on.

"Are ya sure yer not mad at me?"

"I'm very sure son," she smiled. "I don't want ya to worry about that Luke. We're not mad at ya, we ain't gonna spank ya or punish ya for this in any way, so don't ya worry about it now an' get some sleep."

"Kay, night Aunt Martha, night Uncle Jesse," Luke pulled a corner of the blanket they had spread over Bo onto himself and closed his eyes. Having been worn out tired he fell asleep instantly.

When they reached the farm many hours later they carried the two sleeping boys inside without waking them, and thanked Rita Davenport who had come over to stay with the little girl until they could come back with the boys. They were all exhausted so even though they had to get up early in the morning they decided to let the boys sleep in.

**TBC**

_Please review, the Cricket is hungry……_


	3. Christmas At Home

Author's Note: This is a Christmas story, and I am posting it because Halloween is coming up… I am doing it this way because it's tradition to post Christmas stories during Christmas season, and those of you who know me very well will not be surprised by this but just shrug and wonder why I ain't still locked up in the hotel with the soft padded room and hug-yourself-jackets, the answer is, they were booked full….. ;)

Anyway, this is meant to be a cute little story about how the Duke kids gets to celebrating Christmas and I hope y'all will enjoy it.

**Warning**: _The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen. _

Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix…. There is a few people in this story I have to claim responsibility for, and should you want them, I never really am impossible.

* * *

**Big City Christmas**

_**Chapter 3: Christmas At Home**_

Luke woke up to the sensation of a very crowded bed, and he assumed Bo had gone over to sleep in his. Yet when he opened his eyes the first one he saw was Daisy sitting there with a candy cane in her mouth. Bo was there to, sitting by his feet and playing quietly with a matchbox car that he was running over the cover, he to sucking on a candy cane. Neither of them had dressed but Daisy had her robe and slippers on.

"What are ya doing?" Luke asked them confused.

"Mary Christmas Luke," Daisy shouted into his ear while she was smearing candy cane stickiness into his hair with her small hands and sloppy kisses.

"Mary Christmas Luke!" Bo echoed, dropping the car and shouting louder.

"Uncle Jesse said we couldn't open our Christmas presents before ya was awake," Daisy explained. "But Aunt Martha said we could sit in here an' wait for ya to wake up, so we'd know right away."

"Come now Luke, we've gotta go see what Santa left us," Bo urged and pulled at his hand.

"Just a minute Bo," Luke told him, grabbing the car and the ball he had gotten for Bo yesterday. Even if Santa had come to Bo and Daisy, he had gotten them for Bo so he should have them.

"Look," Daisy shouted as they saw the tree and all the presents underneath it. There were lots of them since the farm and the side business had both had a good year, and the couple had decided it was okay to spoil the children a little. A lot of the wrapped packages were clothes and other necessities, but there was a plenty of toys as well.

"Come here and give me a hug Luke," Martha called to him, wrapping her arms around the young boy to reassure him that it was all okay and no one was mad at him. "Did ya sleep good?"

Luke nodded slowly.

"Well here ya go then, I gave the other two little candy monsters one," she smiled handing him a candy cane of his own. "Now get over there with them two and get started on opening them presents."

"Why don't ya hand them out Luke," Jesse suggested. Before he had done that, but it seemed like a good idea. He and Martha had been discussing what had made Luke act like he did, and they had agreed on one thing. Luke had been a little neglected a few times as they were busy, and Luke who always strove to act so serious and mature sometimes paid for it with a bit too high expectations. Luke wasn't all that old, he couldn't be expected to live up to that, and he was just a little boy who didn't always understand everything. They already knew that he sometimes took things to literally, and he shouldn't have to suffer for mistakes they did. Such as forgetting that things sometimes sounded different to him. With Bo and Daisy they were able to keep it in mind, just not always with Luke.

"Go on Luke," Jesse urged him. "Ya just read the labels an' hand them out, better hurry to because Bo there is sure bouncing around."

Nodding and setting his candy cane aside Luke started reading out the names on the labels while Daisy ran around with them, Bo had crawled up into his aunts lap to sit there and wait until he had gotten all of his. Then Luke stopped after he saw the name on the label, it was his own name.

"Aunt Martha, I though Santa wasn't gonna leave me anything?" he frowned.

"Well Luke, Santa knows the difference between a bad boy, and a good boy," she assured him. "He knew that ya didn't really mean to be bad, an' he knew that ya was sorry, so he left ya yer presents, an' ya know what. I heard say he wants ya to know ya don't have to worry like that again, because he knows that yer a very good boy who always looks after yer cousins."

Luke threw his arms around her, feeling a lot better as he continued to read the labels.

As he gave the kids permission to start opening the presents Jesse reined Luke in a moment.

"What's that thing ya gave Bo?" he asked softly.

"I got it for him in case that Santa couldn't find him, to make sure he got something," Luke explained to him.

"That was very considerate off ya Luke, I'm proud of how ya took care of Bo there, ya did real good," Jesse told him. "Now go on, open them presents an' lets see what ya got."

Bo was already tearing into the wrapping paper, eager to find the things inside. All three children cried out happily as they uncovered clothes and toys.

"Look Luke, look," Bo cried out, leaping up from the floor and throwing himself at his cousin as he had uncovered a complete cowboy outfit that Martha had made for him. "Real cowboy stuff, real Luke."

"I see Bo," Luke smiled. Daisy had gotten a real ball gown, and he himself a cowboy outfit much like Bo's. The shirt even had fringes on it, and Luke was really amazed. The three kids had presents for their aunt and uncle. They knew that not everything was from Santa and each child had gotten to pick something out for the other two as well. Bo and Luke had worked together on Daisy's, Luke had explained she wouldn't want toy cars as much as she would like some other things. Instead the two of them had found a new kind of doll for her they though she would love.

For Bo, Luke had picked out a red tractor with a yellow bucket, and Bo had been most disappointed when he found out the race track set he wanted to get for Luke was too expensive, but he had settled on a real big truck instead. He watched with great anticipation as Luke tore of the paper, and then opened the box to uncover the truck inside, as soon as Luke had the lid of though Bo started to cry.

"What's wrong Bo?" Jesse frowned as big tears started to roll down his cheeks.

"It's broke," Bo wailed.

"What's broke?" Luke asked, scooting over to him and pulling him into his lap.

"The truck's broke," Bo wailed as he buried his face in Luke's pajama jacket.

"No it ain't," Luke shook his head as he showed Bo the contents of the box. "See, it ain't broke at all."

"It's all pieces," Bo cried, clinging to his cousin.

"It's supposed to be," Luke told him. "It's a model, ya get all these little pieces an' then ya get to put the together an' then it's a truck."

"It's supposed to be broke?" Bo sniffed.

"Uhu," Luke nodded. "Just ya wait till I put it together, then yer gonna see."

Jesse smiled as he realized what had happened, Bo had seen the picture of the truck on the box and assumed that was the truck that would be in the box. When he saw all the pieces he had thought something had broken the truck. Now Luke was sitting with him pointing out how certain pieces was certain parts of the truck, and Bo was listening intently as he ran the little matchbox car Luke had gotten him around over the two of them.

Daisy was playing with her new doll and doll clothes and Martha was trying on the necklace the children had gotten her. Jesse himself was wearing a red hunting cap that the children had given him, Daisy claiming the colour made him look like Santa Clause. All three kids agreed that it was the colour that had made them pick it out.

"I'll start on the breakfast," Martha told them pushing off from the couch. "You an' the kids clean up the floor here, they can keep the toys out but get all the wrapping paper an' the boxes out of the way."

"We're working on it," Jesse smiled. Luke and Daisy was already helping out, and Bo to, in a way. He had taken his new little tractor and was using the bucket on it to push the pieces of wrapping paper together in a little pile. It was his way to help out and play at the same time.

He giggled as he ran it into his uncle and shrieked with glee as Luke poured a blizzard of torn wrapping paper over it, Jesse just let them play. Daisy had started to, her doll was making snow balls out of the paper and tossing them at the boys where Bo's tractor pushed them together and Luke helped. He didn't care if they were making a mess, it was Christmas and a time for all to be merry. The children he had was the most precious thing he and his wife had. Realizing the boys were missing had scared several years off him, and he had once more been forced to realize that sometimes they didn't see things the way an adult would. It was all a part of the incredible gift that children was to a parent….

**The End**

_Please review, the Cricket is hungry…._


End file.
